– He’s still “Antonio” Cesaro on NXT, right? Regardless, I think Sami Zayn will beat Cesaro. Cesaro is becoming an important cog on the main roster and Zayn’s entire story up until this point is that he HAS to beat Cesaro before he can move on. If you’ve missed their three previous classics (not counting the countless matches they had when they were Claudio Castagnoli and El Generico …’s friend?), match 1 featured Zayn getting a surprise win, match 2 gave Cesaro a dominant response and match 3, the 2-out-of-3 falls classic from last July, is one of the best WWE matches in years. No matter what happens, this is worth tuning in to see. You’re gonna be treating Zayn like Punk and Bryan in a few years anyway.

– I expect Paige to defeat Emma and retain the NXT Women’s Championship. Paige is the first champion, and this’ll be a lot of peoples’ fist time seeing her. Emma has already gotten a spot on Raw and Smackdown, and hopefully this match will help more casual WWE fans see that she’s got a hell of a lot more going on than what happens on those shows. Emma needs to be understood first in her natural environment. Paige needs to hurry up and be a huge deal so we can continue to elevate the quality of women’s wrestling in WWE, and maybe have one Diva without a grisly tan.

– If Paige retains and we need at least one major title change on NXT’s first special, that means Adrian Neville should win the ladder match and become the new NXT Champion. Explaining Bo Dallas to strangers is going to be this week’s most difficult task. All you need to know here is that Neville is THE MAN THAT GRAVITY FORGOT and he’s in a ladder match, so you’re gonna see something memorable and ridiculous. Bo’s had a lengthy title reign, and it’s time to bring him up to be Bray Wyatt’s Cousin Oliver or whatever.

Enjoy the show, everybody, and tell everyone you know to watch the special (the “pay-per-scription?”) and join in.

When the show’s over, you can watch me talk developmental wonderlands and tossy European uppercuts on Aubrey Sitterson’s Straight Shoot, because I am the Internet’s #1 NXT homer. Don’t miss that, okay?

ok… so just caught the NXT show. and yes, it was FANtastic.
but i think thing i enjoyed the most was watching a wrestling PPV where the commentating team actually do a good job of putting everyone over.

02.28.14 at 2:08 am

Gus the Ghost

C’mon guys, Bull Nakano used the Scorpion Crosslock in the WWF. I could never forget that submission. Loved that Paige paid tribute to Bull to put away Emma.

NWOStinger enjoys watching me freak out during ladder matches and is making me watch Wrestlemania X7. If I didn’t already know the Hardy Bros. are still alive I would for sure think they were dead by now.

So, I’m kinda new to the commenting here, but I’ve been following the B/W columns and the show for a while now. This show was the reason I decided to pull the trigger on the Network. It did not disappoint in the slightest. Even the short freeze I got instead of watching Breeze and Woods get slaughtered by Rusev wasn’t enough to deter me from loving this show.

Still not a fan of Neville or the Ascension, but I loved the rest of the show. Sami/Cesaro is probably my favourite singles match of the year. Emma/Paige was the best WWE women’s match since AJ/Kaitlyn at Payback last year. Loved the outdoor pre-show and hope they start doing that for Raw as well. Great night.

I kinda think AJ/Kaitlyn MITB is a better match than Payback. I just love AJ becoming Alberta Del Rio during that match and targeting Kaitlyn’s arm the whole time, surviving the Spear like ADR did Christian’s a month later.

I’m gonna have to rewatch that one! The Payback match stuck in my mind a lot more for some reason. So many great little moments. A complete little story and, of course, the beginning of AJ’s title reign.

I think cause it’s like you said, it was the best main roster Divas match since at least whatever combination of Melina/McCool/Mickie match happened last. It’s a good match, and it had a long term story to make you care about (thank god somebody kept remembering that AJ/Kait were friends), but I thought as a match and continuation of the feud, MITB had room to breathe and be more of a match.

I just rewatched the MITB match and I still say the Payback one was better! The latter one seemed more a normal match, like an elongated version of one they’d have one Raw, whereas the Payback match seemed more special to me.